Counselling for Couples

• Do you want to repair some trouble in your relationship?
• Enhance and strengthen your existing relationship?
• Carry out some pre-marital therapy to prevent problems later on?

Many PRS therapists are trained in a form of marriage and couple counselling called Emotion Focussed Therapy (EFT). It was developed by Sue Johnson of the Ottawa Couple and Family Institute and Les Greenberg for York University.

Our therapists are also informed by John Gottman's groundbreaking research on what makes marriages succeed or fail. These approaches have been shown to have a greater rate of success and less relapse than other couple therapy approaches.

We should point out that this type of therapy does not work well where domestic violence is an issue.

EFT Assumptions

Emotion Focused Therapy for couples assumes that:

• Both partners are good people who have somehow become caught up in a negative way of relating to one another, and are stuck there.
• Each partner wants a relationship in which they can experience their partner as a source of support and comfort, rather than cold, distant, critical, or blaming.
• Both partners have good reasons for the negative interactions with the other, which are usually to protect themselves from negative and hurtful encounters.
• Both partners' needs, desires, and emotional responses are generally healthy and adaptive.

Time Allotment

PRS therapists generally suggest that couples commit to an initial 5 or 6 sessions, which allows for several meetings with the couple and one individual session for each partner. At the end of that time, the couple and therapist discuss whether to go forward with the work. Sometimes issues can be resolved in the initial sessions; more commonly the work continues for another 10 to 20 sessions.

Outcomes

The work in couple counselling is focused on looking at how the negative and hurtful interactions came to be, and establishing a more positive way to relate.

At the completion of the therapy work, each partner comes to experience an emotional bonding with the other, and a sense of secure connection within their relationship.